Spain embraces China
By Frederick W. Stakelbeck Jr.
web posted January 23, 2006
Over the past year, China's rapidly expanding economic, political
and military influence in the Americas, Asia and the Middle East
have threatened to alter existing geostrategic alliances and
traditional relationships, causing great concern within the Bush
Administration. To the dismay of the White House, Beijing has
taken the next step in their quest to secure new global allies,
targeting one of Europe's most revered countries -- Spain. Eager
to gain favor with Beijing and reap the benefits associated with
China's global economic expansionism, Spain's President Luis
Zapatero has made China the cornerstone of an evolving foreign
policy strategy, promoting bilateral cooperation and exchanges
which are expected to grow significantly in the coming years.
Recently, Zapatero has voiced his support for the "One-China"
policy and strong opposition to Taiwanese independence --
supporting national reunification instead. In his zest to improve
bilateral relations, the Spanish president endorsed the removal of
the UN imposed arms embargo against China in early 2005,
against U.S. objections. Zapatero has also lobbied his EU
counterparts for Chinese WTO market economy status with the
hope of an economic windfall. Bilateral trade between the two
countries continues to accelerate at a record pace reaching $4
billion in the first five months of 2005. In 2004, trade between
the two countries stood at $7.2 billion, up 38 percent from
2003.
In July, Zapatero visited Beijing where he met with high-level
Chinese leaders to discuss the expansion of Sino-Spanish
relations, noting that Spain desired greater cooperation on
international and regional issues such as politics, economics,
science and technology. "China, without a doubt, is knocking on
the door of world leadership. Spain admires this modern China;
this China is becoming a great power in the world," Zapatero
said. During his visit, the president signed numerous agreements
in the areas of civil aviation, finance, seismological studies and
transportation.
While in China, Zapatero witnessed the launch of the Airbus
(Beijing) Engineering Centre, the company's second-largest
engineering centre outside of Europe. He also oversaw the
signing of an agreement for 20 Airbus A330 jets worth $3.1
billion to be delivered to Air China beginning in May 2006.
On the last day of his visit to Beijing, Zapatero attended an
energy conference with Chinese vice Premier Zeng Peiyan where
the Spanish president was told that China planned to increase its
use of renewable energy from 7 percent to 13 percent by 2020.
"Spain is one of the top leaders in solar and wind energy
technology. The Spanish system to promote renewable energies
is being analyzed with interest by Chinese authorities," Zeng
Peiyan said.
Spain's growing relationship with communist China under
Zapatero's watch should come as no surprise to observers. The
seeds of bilateral cooperation were planted many years ago. As
a young man growing up in Spain, Zapatero admired China's
Mao Tse-tung's agrarian based political system and the Cold
War Soviet Union.
An ardent academic researcher, former college professor and
former member of Spanish parliament, Zapatero is an intelligent
man with enormous enthusiasm for issues he finds important.
However, his current China strategy should be carefully
evaluated before bilateral relations are strengthened any further.
In fact, it would be in the best interest of all of Europe to practice
extreme caution when dealing with a rapidly expanding China,
eager to make new European friends.
Frederick W. Stakelbeck Jr. is a foreign affairs expert. He can
be reached at Frederick.Stakelbeck@verizon.net.
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